Protection
by ChiefBandit
Summary: Emily and Spencer find themselves in a hostage situation. Spencer tries to protect Emily to make up for Minimal loss but they must work together to keep themselves and the other hostages safe. Co-Written with CriMiAddict
1. Chapter 1

Emily was driving down the road silently cursing herself. She had forgotten to set her alarm the night before and now she was going to be late. She drove down the quiet familiar road when she saw a car on the side of the road with the front end in a tree. She recognized the rusted red color, and sure enough, when she slowed down she saw Reid dialing on his cell phone.

She laughed at the situation before pulling onto the side of the road behind his car. Reid was looking back wondering who was stopping to help him. He groaned when he saw who it was. If she told Morgan he was never going to live this down.

"Having car troubles Spencer?" asked Emily with a huge smile.

"No I just decided to park here and walk to work." he replied sarcastically trying to disguise his embarrassment.

"When's the tow truck coming?" she asked casually trying to stifle her laughter.

"Never. I don't get any reception here." he replied grumpily. Emily checked her phone quickly with the same result.

"Well, I can give you a ride to work if you want." Spencer took the offer and silently sat in her car trying to think of a way to convince her not to tell Morgan, even if he knew it was hopeless. Emily took out her cell phone and pressed speed-dial then speakerphone. Reid smacked his hand into his face when he saw who she was calling.

"Morgan."

"Hey, Derek, Spencer and I are going to be a little late.." started Emily the corners of her mouth pulled u mischievously.

"Why is that Princess?"

"Reid was driving along the road and a tree jumped out of nowhere and hit him, don't worry he's fine though!"

"And you didn't take a picture and leave him there?" he joked.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny Morgan." Said Reid rolling his eyes.

"No I didn't leave him there Derek, SOME of us aren't that cold hearted." She joked back ignoring Reid.

"Ouch!"

"So we are going to be late for work, can you tell Hotch? Say an hour because after calling a tow truck were going to go get some coffee." Reid raised his eyebrow questioningly but Emily ignored that too.

"Bring me back one!"

"You wish!"

"Bye Prentiss, bye Pretty Boy!" he said mockingly and Reid groaned knowing he was never going to live this down.

Half an hour later Prentiss and Reid had called a tow truck and were sitting in a tiny coffee shop just outside of town. They both had coffee and were each sitting on one side of the booth.

After a couple minutes Reid suddenly felt nervous, he had talked to Emily alone before but it was usually about the case or episodes of shows. He didn't know what to talk about. He had never been good at small talk so he sat there awkwardly drinking his coffee not meeting her eyes.

"So, how late were you running this morning?" she asked smiling at him. Reid crossed his leg nervously before responding.

"I slept through my alarm clock and then I had no time to get ready.. Very late but I'm not even sure how long! I'm even wearing matching socks!" he whined. Emily gasped in fake horror.

"Not matching socks! The horror!" she said dramatically before smiling. Reid found her smile contagious and smiled back feeling a little more at ease.

Reid was about to respond but he noticed someone enter then coffee shop holding a gun. He barely had time to call Emily's name before the man shot the ceiling and started shouting.

"Everyone stay where you are. Don't move, don't talk. I hear anything I shoot you. Got it?" A couple of heads shook and he went over to the cashier and told her to open it.

Emily saw the 16 year old girls tremble she was so terrified but she comply and open the register.

Emily looked at Reid and mouthed 'Do you have your gun?' he shook his head and she silently cursed herself for not bringing hers in. With her eyes staying on the unsub she opened her cell phone and pressed the speed dial to Hotch's phone. She stuffed it under her jacket to muffle the rings and Hotch's greeting.

She looked over Reid who was shaking his head to tell her not to do it. She covered the hearing end of her phone and spoke to the unsub loudly enough for Hotch to hear over the line.

"Sir?" she decided playing polite would help.

"What?" he snarled turning around to face her.

"I was wondering if my friend could use the bathroom" she said pointing to Reid since she knew he had his cell on an inside pocket.

"This is a robbery not a hotel. Now shut up!" he snarled turning back to the register. She knew that was enough, Hotch was going to come and get them out of here.

Reid sat across from Emily worrying. He ran over statistics about armed robberies but found none of the results reassuring. He sat back and observed the people in the coffee shop. To the left was a man in a business suit who didn't seem nervous, but if you looked into his eyes you could see the plain fear. To the right was a woman, obviously pregnant, with a 5 to 6 year old girl pressed to her side. At the cash register was a teenage girl who was scared out of her wits. Including himself and Prentiss and excluding the unborn baby there were 6 hostages.

He heard the sirens in the distance and he presumed the unsub could too since he froze. He watched the unsub deliberate on what to do but then saw him settle on anger. He pointed his gun at the cashier and she looked like she was going to cry.

"Everyone, in the corner!" he said gesturing to the far corner. "You!" he pushed the girl with the head of his gun, "Close the blinds."

The group went to sit in the corner while the teen closed the blinds. After she finished and joined the group he pointed his gun at all of them.

"Who phoned the police." He said angrily. Nobody moved. Everyone was holding their breath. Reid watched Emily take a deep breath to say in was her. 'No!' he thought suddenly; she wasn't going to do this again! He could still remember when Cyrus had held them captive. Her words still made him cringe 'It's me' she had said. He wasn't going to let that happen again. Before she spoke her cut her off.

"I phoned the police." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Emily's eye widen.


	2. Chapter 2

The unsub turned to Reid furious.

"Well, we know what hostage I'm shooting first." He said angrily. He pointed the gun at Reid. Reid stared down the barrel of the gun before looking the unsub in the eye. He decided quickly if he was going to die, he was going to die with dignity.

Emily saw the resolve form in Reid's eyes and felt her stomach drop.

"Wait!" she yelled.

"What?" snarled the unsub turning his attention to her briefly. She thought quickly and decided, since he hadn't planned for cops to become involved, he wouldn't know procedures. She came up with a lie quickly and hoped it was enough to save her co-worker.

"If you shoot him now then the police will storm the building. The SWATT team is probably already outside! Once they hear a gunshot they come in and you're as good as dead."

The unsub, although he was panicking, saw logic in her lie and looked back to Spencer.

"Fine. You're safe for now but if I start shooting hostages, you're first on the list." Spat the unsub at Reid before going to lean against the counter and observer his hostages.

He started pacing and Emily knew he had no plan. Spencer turned to Emily and the look he gave her made her certain he was thinking the same thing. She saw him open his mouth to start to speak but then her cell phone started ringing.

Everyone in the room stared at her. Everything was silent except for the ringing. Emily knew it was Morgan; he was the only one who knew they were at a coffee shop although the others had probably figured it out. She decided to rephrase that, he was the only one who would go off orders and phone her. Emily knew that they needed to find out what was happening inside so she tried to get the unsub to let her answer.

"Sir? Can I please answer that? My husband needs to go pick up my little girl and he doesn't know where to go." She saw him deliberate it for a second then decide it wouldn't cause any harm.

"Fine, you got less then a minute." She quickly opened her phone but didn't have a chance to speak before Morgan started talking.

"Prentiss please don't tell me you're in the coffee shop."

"No can do Derek."

"What's your position? Is everyone okay? How many hostages?"

"Well I left Molly at Jane's house. Jane is the pregnant lady down the street who has two daughters, a 6 year old a teen. Her husband is there too. I dropped her off at 6 this morning. She was fine then." Morgan translated it for a second before repeating it.

"Okay, there are 6 hostages. A pregnant lady, a little girl, a teenage girl, a man, you and Reid and everyone is fine. Is that right?"

"Yes, pick Molly up soon, we are really worried because their family has no idea what to do." Emily hoped that made sense to Morgan and didn't tip off the unsub.

"He has no plan got it, stay safe were coming. Bye Emily."

"Bye." She said hanging up and hoping the team had a plan. She looked at the unsub and let out a breath when she saw he didn't look suspicious.


	3. Chapter 3

Outside the coffee shop Morgan told Hotch everything Emily had told him.

"Thanks for the information Morgan, but we will talk about this after we bring Prentiss and Reid home safe." He said disapprovingly before walking off to talk to the head of the police department.

Morgan stood there uselessly staring at the coffee shop hoping Emily and Spencer were okay when his phone rang. He picked it up without thinking.

"Morgan."

"Hey, it's Garcia." She was too distressed to put up her usual banter.

"Hey Baby girl, what do you have for me?" he asked trying to put enthusiasm in his words but failing.

Reid and Prentiss might be getting hurt in there because of his phone call.

"There's a camera inside, I got access, get out the laptop and I'll send you a link." Morgan was already at the SUV, he had sprung into action once he heard the word camera.

"Thanks, you're the best!" he said enthusiastically once he had the live video footage.

"I know." She said and he could hear the smile in her voice. 

Soon the whole team minus Reid, Prentiss and Garcia, were watching the tape. Morgan could see all the hostages in one corner and the unsub pacing. He noted he looked nervous and, like Emily had said, like he didn't know what he was doing. He guessed the unsub hadn't wanted the police to be involved. Morgan knew the fact he hadn't planned the police's involvement could be a good or bad thing. It could be good because he could give up when there was more pressure or a bad thing because he could snap and shoot all the hostages.

The team grouped up and went over the profile. Once they had the profile they started working on a plan.

"If we storm the place we risk him snapping and shooting hostages." Stated Morgan frustrated.

"But if we wait the stress could get to him and he could start anyway." Countered Rossi,

"Can we establish contact?" asked JJ, "I know we can't contact Emily or Reid because as far as we can tell he thinks that they are civilians, but can Garcia reach the landline?"

"I'll get her on it." Said Morgan pulling out his cell phone and walking away.

Inside the coffee shop everyone was twitchy and nervous. Emily and Reid were each trying to form plans, the little girl was whimpering while her mother tried to soothe her, the teenager was curled up in a ball and shaking, the man was tapping his fingers and the unsub was pacing.

Suddenly the unsub turned to the man pointing his gun.

"STOP THAT!" The man stopped immediately and his face turned white with the gun pointed at his face. Everybody froze. There were a couple beats of silence before Emily decided she needed to do something. The unsub was coming off at the hinges, and she feared if she didn't take his focus of the man he would shoot him.

"Sir, he stopped no need to shoot him, remember what I said? They will come in and kill you!" She said desperately.

"Don't' tell me what to do." He roared pointing his weapon at her. He pulled the trigger and time seemed to stand still.


	4. Chapter 4

Emily closed her eyes. It surprised her when she didn't feel the bullet go into her skull, but the floor hit her side. When she opened her eyes the scene shocked her.

Reid was on the ground on a growing pool of blood. She could hear the little girl crying and her mother trying to calm her without looking over. She could see the teenager who had been sitting beside Reid hyperventilating and the man just stared blankly. The unsub was staring at Reid with an expression of shock and disbelief, his arms hung limply by his sides.

Emily examined Reid further with her eyes. Reid's eyes were closed and his teeth clenched trying not to scream in pain. She let out a breath she had been holding when she saw one of his arms gripped his shoulder. She hoped that wasn't a fatal wound.

Emily sat frozen for a second absorbing the scene before running over to Reid and placing her hand on the wound. She almost ripped off her sweater and tied it to his arm to try to stop the bleeding. She could feel tears pooling in her eyes.

"It's okay Spencer, everything will be fine." She mumbled to him trying to calm his down.

Spencer was trying not to scream, he was trying desperately to picture a happy time. He clenched his teeth harder trying to block out the pain. 'Mind over matter.' He repeated over and over in his head. He was aware of Emily whispering to him but he heard no other sound.

Everyone looked up when the phone started to ring, even Spencer who opened his eyes. Emily helped Spencer up into a booth and watched the unsub as he deliberated whether or not to get it. Emily turned her attention back to Reid and looked into his pain stricken eyes. Suddenly he looked at her desperately.

"Emily grab the gun." He whispered harshly.

She looked and saw that the unsub was turned around with his arms still limply at his sides; his fingers were barely supporting the gun.

Emily got off the chair and tried to take silent steps towards the unsub. She grabbed the gun and took a step back. In the time it took the unsub to turn around in shock she was already holding it pointing it at him with a stern face.

"FBI! On the ground!" she shouted and he obeyed immediately, and she let out a breath in relief. She really hated having to shoot people.

Not two seconds after he got down the police broke into the coffee shop. The group consisted of 5 police officers, Morgan and Hotch. The police officers all pointed their guns at the man lying on the ground but then turned them on the woman with the gun. Morgan and Hotch kept their guns trained on the man.

"Drop the gun!" shouted one of the police officers at Emily who still had her gun trained on the unsub. She dropped it immediately and put her hands up. Morgan cuffed the unsub and called for an ambulance.

Hotch came over to get her before one of the police officers tried to cuff her, he knew she wouldn't take that well. He almost smiled at the thought. Once he explained she was FBI she ran over to Reid's side to grab his hand and wait for the ambulance.


	5. Chapter 5

Emily was pushed away from Spencer when the medics arrived. They quickly loaded him into the ambulance and sped away, leaving Prentiss standing alone in shock. She really couldn't believe that Reid would have taken a bullet for her. She thought to herself that this was so much worse than what Benjamin had done to her.

When Emily had arrived at the hospital with Hotch, Reid had already had surgery and was in recovery. She was thankful that she was allowed to sit with him while Hotch left to phone the team with Reid's condition.

Reid slowly cracked his eyes open, the bright hospital lights momentarily blinding him. When he regained his vision the first thing he saw was Emily.

"Hey Reid, how y'doin?" Emily couldn't bring her voice above a whisper.

"I've seen better days." Spencer replied, trying to keep the conversation as light as possible.

"Why did you push me out of the way? That bullet was meant for me." She said bluntly, getting right to the point. Reid sighed before answering.

"Because Emily, I couldn't let you take the fall again. I did that once and I have regretted it since." He stared at her intently knowing that she understood what he was referring to.

Prentiss fell silent. She tried to think of something to say. Thank you just didn't seem to be enough. What could she say? He had single-handedly saved her life. He shouldn't have had to save her; SHE was the one that made them get coffee this morning at this coffee shop, SHE was the one that alerted the police of the robbery, SHE was the one that had let Reid take the blame, SHE was the one that had made the Unsub mad. The bullet was meant for HER, not Reid. It should be her in the hospital be, not Reid. Reid has already suffered too much; he shouldn't have to go through this too. He shouldn't have to go through this all because of her mistake.

Reid watched the emotions in her eyes and knew what she was going through. He knew the feeling of overwhelming guilt and the self-blame. He placed his hand on hers so she would look at him.

" Emily," She didn't look at him in the eye so he repeated it more forcefully, "Emily, What happened to me is not your fault, it was my decision and I would do it again." He had to make sure that she knew that. She smiled slightly as he used words similar to what she had said on the plane.

"Reid.." she started squeezing his hand. Reid stopped her mid-sentence by speaking.

"Emily this is not your fault, stop blaming yourself, okay?" He said trying to make her feel better. Emily looked at him; he was so selfless, he was reassuring her when he was the one in the hospital bed.

"Thank you." She whispered kissing him on the cheek. He blushed a deep scarlet and was saved from responding when Garcia burst into the room her voice sounding almost threatening.

"G-man. If you ever do something like this to me again I swear I will lock you in my lair and never let you out again."


End file.
